LYNCH LAW IN STATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13193, 2 June 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

LYNCH LAW IN STATES.

.NEGROES HANGED ON A STATUE. An atrocious crime against civilisation is. reported from Springfield, Missouri, when a mob of several hundred persons;broke into the county gaol, dragged out two negroes who were charged with attacking a white girl named Mabel, Edwards, hanged them to the statue of the Goddess of Liberty in the' public square, and burned them to 'death in the presence of more than 3000 people, who cheered the. performance. Subsequently a third negro was taken out of the gaol and hanged in the public square. The rope broke once,. but the man was strung up again, some people shooting at the body as it swung. Bits of the wood that burn&i the negroes were retained as souvenirs.. Animosity against the negroes generally has been stirred up by the murders of several white men by negroes, and the present outbreak is construed as the vengeance of the whites upon the black. ' No evidence is forthcoming'to prove that the men burned and hanged were concerned in the assault upon the white woman. About one-eighth of the total population of the United States consists of negroes, and these lynching*;, produce unpleasant effects throughout the country. Feeling against the negroes in some districts is so intense that a jury hardly ever dare return a verdict against a man sus]x?cted of promoting or taking part in a lynching affair. Militia have now been sent to Springfield ,to preserve order. It seems that all but six out of fifty prisoners in Springfield Gaol made their escape, while the mob was madly searching for the suspected negroes. In anticipation of arrests it is declared that many of those who were in the mob which hanged and burned he negroes lelt the town after flic affair. The opinion is general that a bad mistake was made in lynching the first two negroes, but that the third black got no more than he deserved. '